October 10, 2006 -- The NYPD has shelled out more than $1 million in back pay to about three dozen officers who were forced to work six- and seven-day weeks for nearly two years after the Sept. 11 attacks, The Post has learned.
The city's entire police force was taken off its regular schedule, or "duty chart," following the terror attacks, then quickly restored to normal duty in October 2001.
But about 35 officers assigned to the security detail at police headquarters in lower Manhattan were kept on the backbreaking "emergency" schedule until May 2003.
The city paid those officers overtime for the extra time they worked, but the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association went to arbitration seeking more. They wanted payment for off-days they received on the emergency schedule that they normally would have worked on the pre-existing duty chart.
The PBA general counsel's office scored a victory in January when arbitrator John Sands ruled in the officers' favor, rejecting the argument that the new situation represented a "de facto" chart.
"The New York City Police Department does not work on 'de facto' orders or compliance," Sands wrote in the decision.
"It is a paramilitary organization with detailed procedures and rules for imposing, changing and suspending duty charts and schedules. In this case the Department followed none of those procedures."
PBA President Pat Lynch said the scheduling disaster was a symptom of a general manpower crisis afflicting the department.
"This arbitration award makes clear that the department violated our contract to address its staffing shortages," said Lynch. "The NYPD staffing problems are a direct result of the city's refusal to pay its police officers competitive salaries."
Because the decision was issued in January and the officers did not receive their checks - about $30,000 to $50,000 each - until late summer, the union also plans to demand interest.
The NYPD declined to comment on the ruling.
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